I am bowled over by this update! The scents this Yule are amazing. Instead of last year's predominantly icy/snowy theme, this one contains scents of all different kinds. There are icy/snowy ones, but there are also foody, floral, resinous/incensy, woodsy, spicy, old and new, drawing from traditions the world over, including Jewish, Greek, Icelandic, Indian, Mexican, Italian...there are scents based on poetry, history, mythology, or just plain tongue in cheek humour (lick me baby one more time! I can't wait to see what the label for that one looks like!) and that's what I love so much about this update. I am getting loads of decants, and I've bought a few bottles too. I'm glad that the LEs in this update are all long term, so I didn't feel pressured to order. I think the Lunacy order will be a big 'un. My mum will be enabled with Sag (depending on notes), and I can't wait for new Gaiman scents!

Now. The rant. I FUCKING HATE POSTAL STRIKES. Ok, they may be over, but so many of my packages have been held back in the backlog chaos that ensued from about five days of strike. And I get the feeling there are still strikes going on. The packages that made it through so far are: BPAL, Nocturne Alchemy, Heaven and Earth, the Atrocious Attic decant from Tramp, and my Mythos Mixtures Halloween decants from Evil Enablers. But there's a whole lot of stuff that hasn't arrived, I'm still waiting for packages from:

-Mythos Mixtures

-Silk Road Soaps

-Magical Omaha

-Blooddrop

-Cobalt Blends

-Heaven and Earth (I made two orders, this second one may not be sent yet, so it's early days)

-Love Potion

-Possets

-Callisto

-Aeaea decant received!

-October and PPIII from Aevalin

-Chilling Cellar and Forbidding Foyer from Nursekins

-PPV from LJ

-Perilous Parlour

-Bonfire Night recieved!

-All souls 07 from LJ

-Death of Autumn

-Massage oil decants

-Decanting vials

-Queen's Salon decant

-Pumpkin Cheesecake and Spiked Punch decants (it's still early days for these)

I may be missing some things. I'm also expecting tickets for the Tut exhibition but I have no idea when those will be sent. I'm just listing my pending orders and swaps to keep track of what has gone MIA and fear will be lost in a strike-induced black hole never to be seen again. Some are replaceable, but others (like the Caffeinated Death in the MO package) are not. I am not blaming the companies or swappers/sellers for the losses at all so don't worry. I am blaming all this crap on the shoddy postal service and the postal workers who decided to go all on us these last couple of weeks.